Large distributed sensing and communication environments often do not have established communication infrastructures. In such environments, wireless ad-hoc networks are used to regulate communication among devices, often over a shared medium that may only accommodate a limited number of simultaneous transmissions at any given time. Wireless ad-hoc networks in such a shared medium may implement functionality at each device for allocating access to the medium so as to minimize the amount of data lost due to network limitations. In particular, transport protocols are used by wireless ad-hoc networks to specify the manner in which data is transmitted between devices. Typically, these transport protocols are designed to enhance transmission qualities without consideration towards energy efficiency or varying levels of reliability requirements among different types of applications.
Hence, there is a need for transport protocols capable of minimizing energy expenditure while overcoming various network limitations to meet the requirements of different applications.